Matt Thompson creates one part of what I suggested the other day should be the new fundamental unit of news coverage, replacing the article.
MoneyMeltDown is a well-curated aggregation of links to the best coverage.
To recap, I think the new unit of coverage needs to include:
1. Curated aggreagtion. Do what you do best, link to the rest. Here’s the best of the rest. See: MoneyMeltDown.
2. A blog that treats the story as a process, not a product, with continuing coverage and conversation, asking and answering questions, giving updates, filling in gaps: a reporter showing her work. Have you seen a good example? CalculatedRisk is more of an annotated aggregation and that’s valuable but I think it fits better in No. 1 above. The Christian Science Monitor credit crisis blog looks more like a collection of articles. From an industry perspective, the Inman blog is another annotated aggregation. Can anyone point me to a reporter or expert who is using a blog to both report and discover?
3. A wiki that give us a snapshot of current knowledge. Where else would we find that but Wikipedia?
4. Discussion. Where do you think the best – most intelligent and illuminating – discussion is going on?